Separable hinge structure



July 2, 1940, J. MIHALYI SEPARABLE HINGE STRUCTURE Original Filed July13', 1937 Fig.1

Joseph Mihal i 7 ATTORNEYS Patented July 2, 1940 UNITED. STATESSEPARABLE HINGE STRUCTURE Joseph Mihalyi,

Eastman Kodak Company,

Rochester, N. Y., assignor to Rochester, N. Y., a

corporation of New Jersey Original application July 13, 1937, Serial No.

153,351, now

Patent No. 2,135,984, dated November 8, 1938. Divided and thisapplication J anuary 29, 1938, Serial No. 187,719

5 Claims.

This invention relates to photography and more particularly to acombined latch and hinge construction by which camera parts may bedetachably connected to a camera body.

One object of my invention is to provide a separable hinge structure inwhich the hinge pintle may be moved through afixed path to engage andrelease hinge elements so that parts of the hinge may be disconnected.Another object of my invention is to provide a hinge pintle which isslidably attached to a camera body and which is movable between twoextremes of movement, in one of which the hinge pintle is operative toconnect the hinge elements and. in

the other of which the hinge pintle is inoperative in that the hingeelements may be separated. Another object of my invention is to providea spring latch arrangement for holding the hinge pintle in its twoextremes of movement and toprovide a latch arrangement which can bereadily manually released when it is desired to release or change cameraparts. Still another object of my invention is to provide a spring latchwith a single spring which acts on two different latch elements includedin the hinge pintle, one of which is to prevent the hinge pintle frombeing released from the camera and the other of which is to hold thehinge pintle in its operative position. Still another object of myinvention is toprovide a small housing containing spring latchingelements which cooperate with parts of the pintle, and other objectswill appear from the following specification, the novel features beingparticularly pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

In my copending applications serially Numbered 153,351 and 153,352,filed July 13, 1937, I have shown a camera particularly adapted forusewith various attachments and in the first-mentioned application I haveshown, as a typical attachment, the spring motor drive which is used byway of illustration in the present invention. This application is adivision of application Serial No. 153,351, which has matured intoPatent No. 2,135,984, November 8, 1938.

With cameras of the type described, and sometimes with other types ofcameras, it is desirable to have camera parts which'may be detachablyconnected to a camera body, such for instance, as a motor drive unit, aroll holding magazine unit, so that if desired, color film and black andwhite film may be interchangeably used}, or camera backs or magazinesadapted to take different sizes of film. The separable hinge structurewhich will be described herein is particularly suitable for attachingsuch camera parts because it not only permits the desirable type ofhinge connection to be included with the camera body, but it utilizesthe hinge elements as part of a latch for attaching the various cameraparts.

Coming now to the drawing wherein like ref erence characters denote likeparts throughout:

Fig. 1 shows a bottom plan view of a typical camera constructed inaccordance with and em-. bodying 'a preferred form of my invention. I

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the inside of a camera back removed from thecamera shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken on line 3--3 of Fig. 2,parts of the camera being shown in broken lines.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary section through a portion of the hingepintle latching mechanism with the hinge pintle shown in an operativeposition.

' Fig. 5 is a similar view to Fig. 4, but with the hinge pintleillustrated in its inoperative position in which the hinge elements arereleased from each other.

Fig. 6 is a partial plan view of a spring element used in the latchshownin Figs. 4 and 5.

As a typical example of my invention, I have shown a camera I which isequipped with the usual objective mounted in a barrel 2 which may befocused by turning the knurled ring 3. This camera is provided with aseries of hinge elements 4 which are spaced apart at even intervalsacross the edge 5, these hinge elements being interspaced with hingeelement 6 carried by the camera part I which is to be attached to thecamera body I. In this instance, the camera part I is a power drive andincludes a winding key 8 for placing the motor under tension. Theconstruction of the motor drive is completely 'shown in my copendingapplication Serial No.

153,351, filed-July 13, 1937.

The camera may be provided with a slot 9 across the bottom, throughwhich a handle [0 slides to open and close a film magazine as is morefully described in my copending application Serial No. 153,352.

At one end of the camera body I, I provide a small housing II whichhousing may be conveniently made circular in shape and which ispreferably provided with circular lug l2 on the inside of the center asis shown in Figs. 4 and. 5. Around this lug I place a spring washer 25,the extreme edge 14 of which forms a latch which is adapted to engage areduced area or notch 15 positioned near one end l6 of a hinge pintle llwhich is preferably made from spring wire. Since as shown in Fig.

the circular housing H has apertures or slots l8 and l 9 through whichthe hinge pintle may slide, this housing contains at least a portion ofthe latching mechanism designed, first, to prevent the pintle from beingtotally withdrawn from the camera, and, second, to hold the hinge pintlein an operative or latched position.

Fig. shows the position of the hinge pintle ll when totally Withdrawnfrom the hinge elements 4 and 6 to release these hinge elements. Fig. 4shows the position of the hinge pintle when moved to its operativeposition, in which the hinge elements 4 and 6 are latched together bythe pintle to form a hinge.

The hinge pintle carries a handle member 20 which preferably liesbetween the top of the housing II and a wall 2| of the camera so that itcannot readily be accidentally operated. The handle carries an inwardlyprojecting lug 22 which projects into a slot 23 in the camera body I sothat when in the position of Fig. 4, the hinge pintle cannot be movedaxially.

While the normal springiness of the hinge pintle I7 is usuallysuificient to hold the latch elements 22 and 23 in engagement, thespringiness of this member is reinforced by one edge 24 of the springwasher 25 which is preferably annular in shape, as shown in Fig. 6.Thus, the two edges l4 and 24 of the spring washer 25, as shown in Fig.4, both frictionally engage the hinge pintle.

When it is desired to remove the camera part, as camera part 7, thehandle 28 is moved downwardly in the direction shown by the arrow inFig. 4, causing the pintle to flex and causing the edge 24 of the springwasher to become depressed to release lug 22 from notch 23. The handlemay then be moved axially causing the pintle H to slide through theopenings l8 and I9, while an edge M of the spring washer frictionallyengages the pintle l1 until the notch I5 is reached, at which time theedge M snaps into the notch preventing the pintle from being furtherwithdrawn and removed from the camera. Then the hinge elements 4 and 8will be released, and by sliding a suitable operating knob 26 on theoutside of the camera part, shown in Fig. 2, so that a pin 2'! movesthrough a slot 28 and the L-shaped locking bar 29 is moved to releasethe latch elements 30 and 3| from looking pins 32 on the camera body, 3,this camera part can then be released. If the camera part should be apowerdriven back, as shown, it is desirable to have a portion 33 of thelocking bar 29 enter a gear 34 as soon as the camera part is unlocked sothat the motor will not suddenly run down.

It is desirable to have a film indicating dial on the camera to indicatethe number of exposures which have been made, and accordingly, I preferto provide a dial 35 which may turn upon a stud 36 when an operatormoves the upstanding pins 37. Thus, this dial can be set for any desirednumber of exposures and film will not be wasted when the roll holder isagain used on the camera.

It is obvious that there are a good many applications in which it isnecessary or desirable to hingedly attach camera parts together and toprovide in the hinge a latch construction which is simple andefifective, and while I have described and illustrated a preferred formof my invention, it will be understood that I am not limited to thisform, but only as indicated in the claims attached hereto.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent ofthe United States is;

, sliding through the slots, an annular spring enclosed in the housing,and including an inwardly turned periphery engaging the pintle at spacedpoints and pressing said pintle toward the camera part, means on thepintle for engaging one edge of the spring and forming one latch toprevent the pintles withdrawal from the circular slotted housing, latchelements on the pintle and a camera part for holding the pintle in anoperative hinge element engaging position and adapted to be held inengagement by an opposite edge of the spring from that engaging themeans on the pintle for engaging the spring to prevent withdrawal of thepintle from the housing, whereby the same spring by slidably engagingthe pintle, may operate both sets of latch elements.

2. A separable hinge structure for hingedly connecting two camera partscomprising a hinge element mounted on one camera part, a complementaryhinge element on a second camera part, a hinge pintle adapted to passthrough the complementary hinge elements to hold them together, a mountfor the pintle in which a pintle may slide carried by one camera partadjacent the hinge elements, said mount being hollow, a slot in a walladjacent the hollow mount, a handle and protuberance carried by thehinge pintle,

said protuberance being adapted to engage said slot, and a springcarried inside the hollow mount adapted to press against the pintlenormally holding the protuberance and slot in latching engagement.

3. A separable hinge structure fon hingedly connecting two camera partscomprising a hinge element mounted on one camera part, a complementaryhinge element on a second camera part, a hinge pintle adapted to passthrough the complementary hinge elements to hold them together, a mountfor the pintle in which the pintle may slide carried by one camera partadjacent the hinge elements, said mount being hollow, a slot in a walladjacent the hollow mount, a handle and protuberance carried by thehinge pintle, said protuberance being adapted to engage said slot, and aspring carried inside the hollow mount adapted to press against thepintle normally holding the protuberance and slot in latchingengagement, said pintle also including a part adapted to engage saidspring for preventing the pintle from sliding through the hollow mountwhen moved to release the hinge elements.

4. A separable hinge structure for hingedly connecting two camera partscomprising a hinge element mounted on one camera part, a complementaryhinge element on a second camera part, a hinge pintle adapted to passthrough the complementary hinge elements to hold them together, a mountfor the pintle in which the pintle may slide carried by one camera partadjacent the hinge elements, said mount comprising a circular hollowflanged member with pintle guiding slots therein, a spring carried inthe hollow flanged member pressing on the pintle, a handle carried bythe pintle, latch elements on the pintle and part carrying the hollowflanged member, the spring by pressing on the pintle being adapted tohold the latch elements in engagement, at least one pintle guiding slotbeing of sufficient length to allow the pintle to be sprung by itshandle to release the latch elements, whereby the pintle may bewithdrawn to separate the hinge elements.

5. A separable hinge structure for hingedly connecting two camera partscomprising a hinge element mounted on one camera part, a complementaryhinge element on a second camera part, a hinge pintle adapted to passthrough the complementary hinge elements to hold them together, a mountfor the pintle in which the pintle may slide carried by one camera partadjacent the hinge elements, said mount comprising a circular hollowflanged member with pintle guiding slots therein, a spring carried inthehollow flanged member pressing on the pintle, a handle carried by thepintle, part carrying the hollow flanged member, the spring by pressingon the pintle being adapted to hold the latch elements in engagement, atleast one pintle guidingslot being of sufficient length to allow thepintle to be sprung by its handle to release the latch elements, wherebythe pintle may be withdrawn to separate the hinge elements, said pintlehandle including a latch elements on the pintleand part normallycovering a pintle guiding slot and terminating in a bent handle normallyadjacent a portion of the hollow flanged member.

I JOSEPH MJI-IALYI.

